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Andrew J. Eisenberg

Andrew J. Eisenberg

Assistant Professor of Music, Arts and Humanities

Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi

Biography

B.Mus. New York University;
M.A., Ph.D. Columbia University

Andrew Eisenberg is a musical ethnographer and sound culture researcher specializing in urban Africa and the Indian Ocean world. He received his PhD in ethnomusicology from Columbia University in 2009, and carried out postdoctoral research between 2010 and 2013 as a participant in the European Research Council’s “Music, Digitization, Mediation” project led by Professor Georgina Born at Oxford University.

Much of Andrew Eisenberg’s published and forthcoming scholarship focuses on issues of voice, place, and identity on Kenya’s “Swahili coast.” In recent years, he has also been carrying out ethnographic research on the music recording industry in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Andrew Eisenberg has held teaching positions in music and anthropology at Northwestern University, Stony Brook University, and Bard College. At NYUAD he teaches seminar courses as well as performance practice in the area of Arab music.

Digital technology changed music production and distribution in Kenya — and around the world. During his field research, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Andrew Eisenberg sat in on a session at Nairobi's Still Alive studio where he watched producer Timothy Boikwa recorded a song by local artist Profesa. Hear Eisenberg discuss Boikwa's production techniques and thoughts on how the industry has changed.